Boston, USA: A food and music tour 🇺🇸

Ten years ago Harry Pesce worked in an office in downtown Boston, a few blocks from Gracenote Coffee. “All I knew is that it was just a coffee shop that served really good coffee from really knowledgeable baristas,” he says, and he became a regular. In time he switched careers and now he’s one of those baristas, working as general manager over Gracenote’s two locations in downtown Boston.

Read Harry’s guide to food, music, and hidden spots from Boston on up the Massachusetts North Shore.

*Harry Pesce was a regular before he became a barista at Gracenote in Boston. Photo by @oncewaslost_*

Filter: What do you like to do for fun around Boston?

I spend a lot of my free time exploring the food and music scenes. I cook a lot in my spare time so I like to explore restaurants that inspire me in the kitchen: Field & Vine, Comfort Kitchen, and Sarma are a few favorites. You can find my staff at places like Blossom Bar, State Park, Yume Wo Katare, Anchovies, Dragon Pizza, amongst many others.

I play drums in a band, and the city and surrounding neighborhoods have no shortage of venues and bars, large and small, that put on killer shows: Crystal Ballroom, The Jungle, Deep Cuts, and The Sinclair to name a few, or the famous Wally's Jazz Cafe.

I can spend a whole day in Union Square in Somerville. Breakfast at The Neighborhood; coffee and sandwiches at Vinal; Bow Market has shopping, wine, brewery, and other food options; local music happens at Union Tavern and The Jungle; Gracie's for ice cream; drinks at Backbar; dinner at Juliet or Field & Vine.

The concentration of genuinely good things in one area can't be beat.

Filter: What do you like to do to escape the city?

My partner and I have two dogs and we’re lucky enough to have a car, so we'll escape to the North Shore to walk along the beaches up there during the off-season—places like Salisbury Beach Reservation State Park or Beverly. Plenty of good coffee & food to find on the North Shore—Little Wolf Coffee, Kid Dream Coffee, DeVille, and Abraham's Bagels. If you don't have a car, you can get to most of these points via the North Station Commuter Rail train.

Filter: What touristy things in Boston are worth the hype?

All of our museums are fantastic. MFA and ICA are the big ones, but the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is a sleeper that everyone should go to when visiting the city.

The North End is also worth it, just please go to Bova's.

Filter: Where are your favorite quiet corners or hidden gems there?

Walking the Community Path that recently got extended into the city from Cambridge/Somerville is great. The path spans up to the Lexington area, but you can walk from Boston's West End/East Cambridge and walk through parts of the surrounding cities, being able to stop in places like Cambridge Crossing, Union Square, and Davis Square. A hidden gem that opened a second location is Colette Bakery—originally opened in Medford around the corner from where I live, they recently took over the old Cafe Madeleine Space in the South End: amazing french pastry.

Filter: What's another coffee shop around there that you really admire, and what about them stands out to you?

Probably Cicada. Vincenzo has put, well, everything into that space and it truly shows—quite literally has built almost every inch of it. Whether you are there for coffee and pastry or full dinner service, it's one of those places when you bring people it becomes one of their favorite spots that they then bring people to frequently. It has grown so organically and has an authenticity to it that makes it so I would never get tired of going.

Filter: What makes Boston feel most like home to you?

Boston is small, and when you're in the industry here you tend to know who everyone is and you develop relationships that last far beyond where you work or where you go to eat. Don't get me wrong, Boston has earned its reputation of being a rude city, but the industry people here know how to take care of you and support each other to no end.

Filter: How did you end up in coffee in Boston?

I'm from southeastern Massachusetts originally, and started working downtown in Boston almost 10 years ago for what I originally went to school for. My office happened to be a few blocks down from where Gracenote first opened up, and all I knew is that it was just a coffee shop that served really good coffee from really knowledgeable baristas. Over the years as a customer, I made friends with the staff (going in 3-5 times a day helped) and they were so generous in sharing their coffee knowledge and resources that it inspired me to want to get into specialty coffee. To this day, those experiences are still the best examples of hospitality I can think of.

Filter: What’s your role at Gracenote?

I'm the general manager so I oversee the cafe spaces we have downtown, both our brick and mortar shop on Lincoln St. and our newer project in the High Street Place food hall. We're a small team, and I like to learn every aspect of what I do, so I do everything from payroll to plumbing to being on the floor during the rushes. I'm so thankful everyday that I work with the people I do—we have staff with so many different backgrounds from coffee scenes here and from around the country. We wouldn't be able to do what we do without them so they always get the credit. From my time working down the street as just a customer, Gracenote was always my happy place, so being able to spend my time there makes me look forward to the work I get to do everyday.

Filter: If you could move to any place in the world just for the coffee scene, where would you move?

I'm not much of a world traveler, so I can't say I have the experience to make a good decision, so I'll keep it contained to the states. Philadelphia is one of my favorite cities to visit, and I recently got to go to Persimmon in Fishtown for the first time and it was just a perfect experience. I could just keep going there and I would be happy.

Filter: Anything you’d like to add?

Being in the Northeast and especially New England, it's so easy for us to get to other cities and states to take in what they have to offer. I'm about an hour and a half from Portland, Maine and I could ramble on about their hospitality scene for quite literally hours. It's one of our favorite places to go to, for many reasons, but you'll just have to wait for the Filter Portland article to come out :)

–

Gracenote operates two cafes in Boston.

Gracenote Coffee - Leather District

Gracenote Coffee & Wine Bar - High Street Place Food Hall

Food & Beverage